JACK MA Lessons for Digital Africans

Jack Ma speaks at Netrepreneurs event in South Africa

This week will go down in history as the significant moment for people who are working towards building the Digital Africa. Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of the Chinese Unicorn, Alibaba, visited South Africa for the first time and delivered probably the most important entrepreneurship talk in the African continent. The man who built one of the most important e-commerce platform in recent history shared his story with young technology entrepreneurs, legislators and academics. In his talk he had a message for entrepreneurs and government leaders.

He began by outlining what it took to build Alibaba in the 90’s in China. At the time China had no internet (it was installed only after 3 months after he registered the business) and people knew nothing about selling online. Jack Ma understood the importance of building an internet company in the country after he realised that Chinese products were not available in the global internet at the time. The fact that China had no internet during the time at which Alibaba was established meant that Ma had to teach even journalists about his services. According to him this was a challenge but also an opportunity. People did not know what he was talking about when he spoke about the internet as a result it was also difficult to get people (engineers) to work for Alibaba. At the time the competitor for Alibaba was eBay (an e-commerce company) and they were attracting the brightest minds from leading academic institutions. Banks were also not making life easier as they were refusing to lend him money to build his business.

According to Ma, due to lack of understanding of the internet, his company received less support. As a result this experience taught him to expect no support in the process of building a business.

LESSON FOR ENTREPRENEURS

The story of how Alibaba was founded is an important one for South African entrepreneurs as digital conditions in Africa are similar to what China was during the early days of Alibaba. In Africa a number of countries have poor internet connectivity, the general population lacks the understanding of the digital world. According to the founder of Alibaba these African conditions should inspire African tech entrepreneurs to develop solutions. The very fact that Africa lacks infrastructure should be considered by local tech entrepreneurs as an opportunity to build such infrastructure aswell as services on top of such infrastructure.

In Europe, almost everything that needs to be built is already in place and therefore opportunities are limited, this is not the case about the African continent. The lack of infrastructure in China were instrumental in making Alibaba what it is today. Alibaba is now one of the leading 10 digital platforms in the world.

It was built under conditions of very limited support from government and other institutions. The same is true about building a business in South Africa. Although it is claimed that there’s support, the reality is that there’s very limited support for entrepreneurs. The lack of support however should not discourage entrepreneurs from pursuing their dreams. According to Jack Ma entrepreneurs must get used to not getting support even from family members. Jack indicated that the first 10 years of Alibaba were not easy. Failure was part and parcel of his entrepreneurial journey. In South Africa, failure is viewed negatively. Jack Ma encouraged entrepreneurs to learn from failure and mistakes in order to learn how to face them in the future.

LESSON FOR LEGISLATORS

The talk was also addressed to South African legislators who are leaders in government and some who formulate policy. He had an important message to share with legislators which if taken to heart can influence the success of SA Startups. He called on legislators to create an enabling environment for young companies and startups. He suggested that less tax for these companies can serve as an important instrument to drive their progress and success.

He called for leaders to start viewing entrepreneurs as heroes of our time. He concluded his talk by committing to support African tech entrepreneurs. He announced and established a new contest that will see African entrepreneurs compete for $10 million in funding, with the aim of supporting businesses that are growing the continent’s digital economy. The Jack Ma Foundation Netpreneur Prize, will enable small businesses in Africa to vie for $1 million in prize money every year for the next decade, starting in 2019.

Jack Ma Foundation will host an annual pitch competition, with all 10 finalists receiving grant funding and access to the Netpreneur community of African business leaders for mentorship and other resources.

Jack Ma meets SA President

The first visit by Jack Ma in South Africa is significant for a number of reasons. Besides the important support provided to local tech entrepreneurs the visit also received the attention of government. Jack Ma met briefly with President Ramaphosa. It is hoped that Jack Ma’s talk and visit will bring to the fore digital matters to the South African government. To build the future of the African economy there will be a greater need to build the digital economy. South Africa needs more similar initiatives to build the digital economy by developing digital businesses.

South African tech entrepreneurs should aim to create leading digital businesses not just in the country but across the continent and beyond. In the next 10 years when the Jack Ma Foundation Netrepreneurs Prize comes to an end, African digital entrepreneurs should have created at least 10 unicorns that will lead the African digital future.